


Writing Club Is Too Much

by guardianofdragonlore



Series: Writing Club Rules [3]
Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Gen, Generally a reflection on overcompensation, Sad, Tekeny is overworked
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-07
Updated: 2017-12-07
Packaged: 2019-02-11 21:41:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 921
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12944529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/guardianofdragonlore/pseuds/guardianofdragonlore
Summary: Tekeny Ghemor needs to take a nap before he collapses.





	Writing Club Is Too Much

**Author's Note:**

> Tekeny is totally not my experience with adults for Writing Club . Totally no.

During his life, Tekeny Ghemor made many mistakes. He became a teacher in order to balance out some of them; it rarely worked but it  _ was _ an attempt. His daughter, god protect her wherever she was, always told him she was proud of him no matter what he did. Tekeny still tried to live up to her legacy. He dove headfirst into doing good. He was the basketball coach, head of the student newspaper, and advisor for the student government. Not to mention the various clubs he helped with! Dozens of awards around his classroom.

 

The only problem with doing so much good is that you can only do  _ so much _ good. Everyday was meetings, events, contests, arguments, everything under the sun. He was lucky if he ever got home before seven anymore. He didn’t regret that.

 

He did regret it when his responsibilities clashed with each other.

 

It was his lunch hour, and like always he was spending it answering emails. One marked important caught his eye. The subject line….  _ The Proposed Meeting About Student Diversity.  _ He quickly opened it. He’d been begging the school administration to have a teacher meeting about diversity for years now. Reading the email, Tekeny felt his heart swell with joy. It was going to happen! They would talk about LGBT+ students, mental health, disabilities, and  _ anything else the teachers deemed fit to discuss!  _ It was perfect! Tekeny scrolled past the fluff, straight to the date. He didn’t need to read the “this is not optional section”, he just needed… 

 

Oh… 

 

It was scheduled for the next Writing Club meeting. Great. At least he knew the club could handle itself. Garak wasn’t trustworthy, but he wasn’t insane. He wouldn’t break anything. There was the time he walked into his room and found a dozen plastic bats hanging from the ceiling, but he didn’t think that was Garak’s doing. 

 

The bats hadn’t been too bad either. He left them up for a couple of weeks.

 

Now though, Tekeny had to tell Garak he couldn’t make it to the meeting.

 

“Garak, I hate to have to do this, but…” Tekeny trailed off when he saw the  _ look  _ on Garak’s face. “And you were expecting that.”

 

Garak shrugged, scribbling in his notebook. 

 

Tekeny was one of the few teachers in the school who opened his classroom during lunch. Not many of his students took advantage. Garak was the exception to that. Everyday, he would stay and do homework or write. Some days, he and Tekeny would talk about things in the school. It was more of a glorified gossip session. Nothing in his contract prohibited that. 

 

“There’s always something more important than Writing Club,” Garak said. His pen paused in it’s frantic movements. “And you are an important man Mr. Ghemor.”

 

Tekeny opened his mouth to argue, but paused. There was always something, wasn’t there? The last time he went to a Writing Club meeting was… two months ago. Only Garak was there, frantically typing up a constitution to submit to the student government for approval. Since then, nothing.

 

This was not good.

 

Tekeny grimaced.

 

“I’m sorry Garak. How is the club going?” he asked. Hopefully he hadn’t missed too much. Oh god, he was so disappointed in himself. What would Iliana think?! She loved writing, just as much as she hated it when teachers failed their students.

 

“Good, we’ve drafted out a request for a budget,” Garak rattled off some other things, but Tekeny’s mind settled onto one word.  _ We’ve.  _ When did other people join? Garak never mentioned anyone else joining.

 

“Who else has joined?” Tekeny asked. 

 

“Just a Vice President and a Treasurer, no one important,” Garak’s voice was sharp. “It’s nice to have people care, isn’t it Mr. Ghemor?”

 

Tekeny narrowed his eyes. That wasn’t fair. He didn’t have any choice in the matter. When the school needed him, he answered with all of his gusto. And he didn’t do anything other teacher’s didn’t. Granted, they probably didn’t miss the amount of meetings Tekeny did….

 

He slowly realized that he couldn’t argue with Garak. 

 

“I’m happy for you Garak,” Tekeny said blankly. 

 

A rock would have been able to hear the gears in Garak’s head turning as he attempted to formulate a response. 

 

“Yes… You must be… however, you should be happy since it is your club as well.”

 

That hurt. Tekeny looked back at the email, his eyes drifting to “this is not optional”. Other teachers would undoubtedly skip it. He wouldn’t be alone if he did. But he’d been fighting for this for years.  _ Years _ . If he didn’t go, they probably wouldn’t organize another one again. 

 

“I’m sorry Garak. I swear I’ll come to the next one,” Tekeny promised. 

 

“I’m sure you will,” Garak agreed. He smiled blandly at Tekeny before looking down at his notebook. 

 

For a moment, Tekeny remembered Iliana. The day before she disappeared, they played catch together. He’d been terrible, dropping the ball every single time. Before long he begged her for a break. They sat on the front porch together, just in time to catch the sunset. It was perfect.

 

Iliana laid her head on his shoulder. 

 

_ You’re amazing dad _ , she whispered. 

 

That’d been before he left the military, before he even considered teaching. Iliana was proud of him. He didn’t know if she was still proud. 

 

He closed his eyes and sighed. He was so tired. 

  
After the diversity meeting he would clear his schedule. He would be a part of Writing Club if it killed him.


End file.
